For the capstone project in Technical Design this spring, graduating students were asked to create an innovative garment. Isabella Estevez, Technical Design ’25, Textile Development and Marketing ’23, wanted to create a fully compostable garment.
She approached Preeti Arya, assistant professor of Textile Development and Marketing, at the beginning of the semester with a sample of a fruit peel–based fabric she had developed based on YouTube videos. Over the next month, Arya refined the recipe in her kitchen laboratory to improve the fabric’s texture and durability.
The material Arya created looks and feels like rugged leather, but it is actually made of a mix of about 10 vegan ingredients, including orange and avocado peels, that is fused to a cotton canvas backing.
Arya suggested adding a polyurethane coating to aid durability and make the fabric water-repellent, but Estevez insisted that the garment be compostable, and polyurethane is plastic. Eventually they found a water-repellent film that was compostable.
“There are a lot of companies now that say they are doing sustainable products,” Estevez explains, “but if they put a polyurethane coating on top of it, once it makes its way to landfills, it’s going to leach those harmful chemicals.”
Estevez presented her project at the Women in Textiles Summit, held at FIT March 31 to April 2 by the Advanced Textiles Association and the Textile Development and Marketing Department. Some of the attendees wanted to scale up the fabric to make it available for industry.
“People were really impressed, seeing the material,” Arya says.
